Sainsbury's
by oeuvre24
Summary: A shopping trip after work for Hermione ends up with her bumping into someone she hadn't seen in five years.


**Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot**

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A creature of routine, Hermione always shopped every second day at six thirty in the afternoon, straight from work. It _had_ been at five thirty, until she'd been promoted in her position and taken it upon herself to arrive at work earlier, and leave later. Needing to give her mind a rest and re-immerse herself into the real world, not the world of copious amounts of paperwork and legal jargon that came as a part of her workload, the half an hour walk to Sainsbury's - only a few roads from the Ministry - was a blessing she'd discovered early on in her career. No matter rain, storm or shine, Hermione would be seen every second day, walking to the shops.

After a particularly gruelling day involving several meetings and finishing off a report she'd been writing for the past two weeks, she decided that instead of cooking dinner, she'd earned herself to a night on the couch with a ready-made meal and a glass of red wine. With a wine bottle already in the shopping basket Hermione made her way to the frozen food aisles to browse. The aisle was empty, bar one person, and she ended up in front of the shepherd's pies and lasagnes, tossing up between what she'd rather have that night and eventually decided that shepherd's pie sounded like the way to go for tonight and took the lasagne for the night after. As she was walking to the other end of the aisle, she passed the tall man who was looking at two packets of ready made meals and she had a silent giggle to herself as she used to be that person, comparing the nutritional value of everything until she decided there were bigger things to worry about than the numbers on the back of her food. Albeit, it had caused her stomach to be a tad rounder in the last couple of years than it had been when she was eighteen, but it didn't matter that much to her anymore. The section containing the frozen desserts was what she was going for and she stopped at the fridge next to the man.

"Everything's so bloody unhealthy," he muttered under his breath.

"But it's also bloody good, that's the downfall," Hermione couldn't help herself from chiming in. From the slight jump of the man, he hadn't even noticed she'd came to stand next to him. She had her arm in the fridge then, the door being held open by her hip as she grabbed a pudding cup from the shelf. It was only when she stood straight and let the door close that she looked up at the man and her eyes widened. "Malfoy…" She said in surprise after a few seconds hesitation.

The Malfoy in front of her didn't remind her of the Malfoy she'd last seen at eighteen, five years ago. This man in front of her had enough stubble to be classified as a beard, in her eyes, and had filled out his frame that had been rather lanky and skinny back in Hogwarts. "Granger," he said, equally surprised as she was.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione rushed out and placed her shopping basket on the ground. "Well, no, I know you're shopping, but – _here_?"

"As in a Muggle supermarket, right?" He asked and shifted slightly on his feet, subtly moving back from their close positioning.

"Well, _yes_ ," Hermione nodded, not comprehending how rude she may have sounded to him. It was the slight sneer on his face that let Hermione know that he had taken her comment the wrong way. "I just mean that we haven't seen each other in almost six years! What are the chances that we bump into each other in Sainsbury's?"

"Too high, apparently…" He said and took another step back. "I need to go," he said and without waiting for her response, turned on his heel and walked down the aisle away from her.

Thoroughly confused with the interaction, Hermione stood dumbstruck in the aisle. She'd last seen him after the conclusion of the Battle of Hogwarts, a memory she tried very hard to block out of her conscious memory, and not even thought of where he may be or what he may be doing in the years that followed. He seemed to be doing well, though, from what she'd seen. He no longer looked like the haunted, conflicted boy he was at eighteen. She shook her head slightly and picked up her basket and walked away, heading towards the baked goods before she would go home.

It was only when she got to the muffins that she noticed Malfoy doing the same thing. She didn't know what to say, so decided to just look at what muffins there was and to choose what she wanted. Malfoy was the one to turn and see her and speak first. "I never would have taken you as a stalker, Granger," he drawled.

Hermione looked at him, affronted. "I'm not _stalking_ you, that's ridiculous!" She breathed. "This is just a coincidence." She looked down at the pack of muffins in his hand then. "Triple chocolate is my favourite too," she spoke before realising how utterly absurd the comment was considering the man in front of her was one she'd never thought she would speak to ever again.

"Lovely to know that useless fact."

Hermione let out an annoyed breath. "I see you're still as arrogant as you were in Hogwarts," she said.

"And I see you're still as overbearing."

She tightened her jaw and stared up at him and was met with a cocky look back, with a slight twist to his lips that had the girls back at school swooning. Not Hermione though, even though he had grown into a rather…alright…specimen. "Do you always shop here?" She changed the subject.

"Yes, every couple of days," he answered which made her wonder if she'd seen him before in passing and never took notice to who he was; but no, she wasn't that unobservant. Was she? "I've seen you a few times." She was.

"And you never thought to say, I don't know, _hello_?" She asked.

"No thanks, Granger. I get enough strange looks in our world," he snorted.

"I wouldn't have given you strange looks," Hermione argued.

"False," he said. "You looked at me as someone would look if they'd seen a ghost for the first time."

"That's only because you look different!" She said in exasperation. "Not because it's you."

"Right…" He drawled and put his muffins in his shopping basket and reached to take another pack off the shelf and handed it to her.

"What are you doing?" She asked, eyeing the muffins.

"They're your favourite, are they not?" She narrowed her eyes and took the packet and placed it in her basket. "Wasn't so hard, was it?" He snorted.

"I need to pay for my things," Hermione announced.

"As do I."

"Well it looks like we have to walk the same way, does it not?"

"It seems we do," he responded and didn't break eye contact with her until she turned to walk towards the registers at the front of the shop and he walked alongside her.

It didn't take long for Hermione to break again. "Tell me what you've been doing for five years," she said and was surprised to hear him laugh.

"How much time do you have, Granger?"

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 **A/N: Just something I wrote on my tumblr (hexrmionegranger). Hope you enjoyed!**


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